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VIEW OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS.

FRANCE. The public disapprobation in consequence of the change of ministry continues to increase rather than diminish; and unless some great change takes place, it seems impossible that the present cabinet will be able to carry on the affairs of the country at the meeting of the chambers. The journals are kept under the most rigorous censorship; but every political allusion is sought for with avidity by the public, and projects for promoting arbitrary government are imputed to the ministry, which, whatever may be their wishes,they doubtless never contemplated. TURKEY.-The successful progress of the Russian arms has reduced Turkey to the necessity of seeking an armistice, with a view to negociations for peace; which, under the influence of England, and the present government of France, may probably be concluded on terms less humiliating to Turkey than might have been dictated by Russia had no jealousy been excited among her neighbours at the victorious progress of her arms.

DOMESTIC.-The state of Ireland has become somewhat more tranquil, and we trust that the existing discontents will speedily be forgotten. Government has most wisely, as we think, refused interfering among the litigant parties, except to secure justice to both; and the LordLieutenant has also declined applying to the King in council for those extraordinary powers which in former cases have been often considered necessary to secure the tranquillity of disturbed districts. Mr. O'Connell, and some of his most zealous countrymen, have been taking up a better object than that of exciting domestic discontents, by manfully pleading the cause of the poor despised slaves in our colonies.

In this object most heartily do we wish
Ireland has not to charge
them success.
itself with the same guilt as England and
Scotland, as respects the horrors of West-
India slavery; and wherever the sinful-
ness and cruelty of the system has been
exposed in that country, willing and
zealous friends of humanity have arisen to
denounce it. The venal presses of Eng-
land and Scotland have not been able to
pervert the just and generous feelings of
Irishmen on this important question. We
will only say, Let not the loyal and Pro-
testant inhabitants of Ireland; let not,
especially, our own clergy, and the members
of our Church, be surpassed in this cause
of Christianity and humanity. This, at
least, is not a question in which the jea
lousies or prejudices which disturb that
country ought to have any weight; it re-
quires and deserves the advocacy of the
members of all sects and parties, however
widely they may differ upon many other
points.

A most unadvised trial has been instituted of Captain Dickenson, for his conduct at and after the battle of Navarino. Admiral Codrington had included Captain Dickenson at the time in his official panegyric; but not approving of his receiving some special honours above some other officers, he recently addressed the Admiralty, stating several reasons for disapproving of the captain's conduct; which reasons the Admiralty formed into regular charges for the investigation of a court-martial, and forced Sir E. Codrington to bring them to the proof. In this he failed; and Capt. Dickenson was most honourably acquitted; but the proceedings have given rise to many disclosures which are far from being calculated to benefit the service.

ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS.

W. R. A.; A CHURCHMAN; LAICUS; SCOTUS; SENRAB; H. B.; G.; THEOGNIS; G. B.; A CANDID DISSENTER; P. W.; A CONSTANT READER; and H. O.; are under consideration.

SUPPLEMENT TO RELIGIOUS INTELLIGENCE.

BRITISH AND FOREIGN BIBLE SOCIETY.

THE Extracts contain, among other details, some peculiarly interesting incidents, in the letters from New Brunswick and St. Petersburgh.

ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY.

We have in the last Reporter another elaborate and most striking digest of the progress of colonial reform. There is, here and there, a somewhat less shaded spot (see especially p. 68); but the general aspect is nearly as black as ever. Sir George Murray's remonstrances do him great honour; but it is very clear that the legislature alone can achieve the conquest. The colonies only ridicule remonstrance, or attempt to blunt its force by plausible, but evasive and inefficient, enactments. The axe must be laid to the root of the whole system.

REFORMATION SOCIETY.

We must refer our readers to the Quarterly Extracts in detail, for the progress of the society's labours, the incidents being too numerous and miscellaneous for insertion, or analysis. Added to the account of the society's operations, there is a letter from the Continent (p. 9) which relates some remarkable and encouraging facts.

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RELIGIOUS COMMUNICATIONS.

ESSAY ON SUPERSTITION.

(Continued from p. 536.)

PROCEED to notice cerebral irritation arising from bodily causes, as another source of spectral appearances.

It has already been shewn that the brain is the organ of the mind; and that under certain circumstances of irritation it is liable to disordered manifestations, so as to occasion various illusions, and among others the appearances of ghosts, and other alleged supernatural visitations. My present position is, that under given circumstances the brain ceases to be a perfect organ for mental manifestation; and that in this state of imperfection it continues to act on without the guidance of the presiding mind, and so as to give rise to various appearances, which have usually been attributed to supernatural agency.

Perhaps the most important of these cases are those, first, in which there has been supposed to be the re-appearance of departed spirits to distant friends, at the moment of the dissolution of the connexion of mind with its material tenement; and, secondly, those which have been ascribed to the immediate intervention of the Deity.

Of the former class, it seems just to infer that one established case in which the supposed circumstances have taken place, but the death of the party has not occurred, will be CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 334.

sufficient to overturn the hypothesis; because, if intended by the Divine Power as a notice or warning of the death of certain individuals, and therefore permitted or appointed by that Providence, it must be invariable, or it cannot form a portion of the moral government of a Being of infinite and immutable truth. Such a history is furnished us in the narrative of the Rev. Joseph Wilkins, published in the Record of September 2, 1828. [Having mislaid the paper, I quote from memory, but I believe correctly.] It is there stated, that Mr. Wilkins dreamed that he paid a visit to his family at Abingdon ; that he arrived in the night, and tried to obtain an entrance at the front door, but in vain; that he then went round to the back door, and, finding it open, proceeded up stairs to his mother's chamber, and addressed her after this he awoke, and perhaps would not have thought a second time about his dream, but that on the same night, and at the same hour, Mrs. Wilkins, his mother, was awakened by a sound of some person endeavouring to obtain an entrance at the street door but failing in doing so she heard presently afterwards the back door opened, her son came up stairs, and addressed her in the words before alluded to. So thoroughly convinced was she that this was the usual supposed appearance of departed spirits to their distant 4 G

friends, that a letter was written the very next day to a friend of the Rev. Joseph Wilkins, upon the presumption that he was dead, to inquire particulars. The individual who publishes this statement concludes by observing, that it may appear strange that the narrator lived half a century after this circumstance, and "would never attribute any thing that happened, which could apply to this plain and simple matter of fact."-Strange indeed, surpassing strange, it would have been, if viewed as a spiritual communication; but an extraordinary coincidence only, if considered as resulting from a state of cerebral irritation, existing in two individuals of the same family, with similar constitutional predispositions, at the same time. The fact, I am not disposed to deny, may have happened; its circumstances may not be easy to explain: one thing, however, is certain-namely, that the supposition of coincident cerebral irritation is possible; while that of a heavenly agency to produce a false impression, painful and useless, upon the mind, is untenable, nay, impossible. And if the inference from a single instance of wellauthenticated fact can be thus proved to be false, the usual consequence is subverted; and, then, the essential character of the Divine proceeding being wanting-namely, truth and immutability-the effect cannot be ascribed to an Almighty agency. The position that such assumed appearances may be ascribed to the evil spirit is equally untenable, because it would be wanting in that character of malignity, and that perversion of good, which must attach to demoniacal influence.

The present seems to be a fit opportunity for mentioning what has happened to A. B.-a lady, who many years since thought she saw the children of a friend of hers, at some distance, in the grounds, in deep mourning, and concluded that this was a warning of the decease of her friend; but no such conse

quence followed. At another time, this same lady saw her own coachman pass through her room dressed in the usual habiliments of woe, and her thoughts turned anxiously to her husband, whose health was at that time precarious; but no occasion for mourning happened in the family. This lady, it is true, was not carried away by these appearances; but, had they happened to a person of a different mental calibre, they would have been viewed as mournful presages, and would have been considered as apparitions.

But, secondly, the history of Colonel Gardiner affords an example of our second division; and, indeed, it is perhaps one of the most extraordinary upon record. The circumstances are too well known to require recapitulation. Yet let it be recollected, that the impression resulting from this circumstance, however beneficial to the party, was immediately attended by a most powerful influence upon the nervous system, and was followed by very severe illness; and, according to the views maintained in this essay, was produced by the approach of that malady, through a peculiar, but not uncommon, agency exerted upon the brainular system during the incubation of disease. That the brain is liable to illusory excitement under such circumstances, is shewn by the well-known fact of the fallacious feeling of high health, and comfort, and hilarity, which often precedes, scarcely by an interval of five minutes, all the miserable sensations of indigestion, acidity, heart-burn, sinking, and wretchedness, wretchedness, which accompany certain states of disordered function of the stomach. Now, if this acknowledged illusion be dependent upon a slight disturbance of the general harmony of the system, can it be deemed extraordinary that the approach of its more serious and threatening invasions should be attended by some important illusions, and more deeply shadowed creations of a morbid brain?

To this view of the subject it may be replied, that in the instance of Colonel Gardiner it was follow ed by the conversion of a sinner, and that therefore it must have owned a supernatural origin. But this is by no means a consecutive result, and cannot be admitted in the argument. For it is perfectly possible, and consistent with all we know of the mysterious wisdom and goodness of a God of order and of infinite mercy, who works by the agency of means, that this sickness, and the effect produced upon the nervous system by its approach, should be employed as the very means of arresting the sinner in his headlong course of vice and widening alienation from God, and of recalling him to better thoughts and principles; awakening him to repentance, to a sense of his lost and ruined state, and to the only hope of salvation, through the atoning sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, the only refuge for the convinced unpardoned sinner, the only means of obtaining peace. In the order of God's providence, nothing is more usual than that affliction, and especially sickness, should be employed to accomplish spiritual good, even the purposes of Divine mercy towards the sufferers; for we well know how greatly the heart is softened and rendered impressible by sorrow. Sometimes even wicked men are permitted, unintentionally on their parts, to bring about these designs; at other times, we become ourselves the authors of our misfortunes, by our imprudence, or neglect, or vices. God is not the author of evil, and does not employ evil in his service. But the wicked agents of their own desires and devices are permitted, in following their own wills, to bring about the designs of the Almighty. So, also, impressions upon the nervous system, which result from a physical influence, as well as the calamity of insanity itself, may be overruled for good, and may be instrumental in the conviction and con

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version of the sinner. And although it is desirable for us to form just views of these cases, it might not always be advisable to combat opinions of this kind, where we found them referred to a supernatural agency; provided always, that we could trace their holy influence upon the heart and conduct of those who verily thought they owed their "second thoughts to some such special miracle. The feverish heat of enthusiasm is certainly not to be desired, but it is infinitely less to be deprecated than the death-like torpor of unbelief; that gloomy collapse of action, which scarcely admits of hope. Still, enthusiasm is an evil, which admits of prevention rather than cure; and the first of these objects forms the great purpose of the present essay. And how delightful is the reflection, that all our affairs are in the hands of such an omnipotent and all-wise Jehovah, whose merciful designs cannot be circumvented, and who deigns to over-rule for good even the wicked devices of his rebellious creatures. Without, therefore, the necessity of supposing any supernatural influence, we have a most rational explanation of this mystery-one which enlarges our views, and fixes them upon the infinite goodness of the Almighty, who doth all things well, instead of upon a very questionable agency, which has often been perverted to bad purposes.

Besides, a similar appearance has been often made without being followed by a similar result. And if the Almighty should have condescended to employ this extraordinary revelation in bringing about his designs of mercy, it can scarcely be supposed that this can ever have occurred without being followed by the alleged consequence. For however, under common circumstances, the sinner, in the hardness of his heart, may resist the striving of the Spirit in all ordinary means of impression, it cannot be allowed that this would be the case when a

miracle-that is, an interference with the customary laws of nature had been produced for this express purpose; for the Omnipotent does nothing in vain. Now two cases, very nearly similar to that of Colonel Gardiner, have occurred in the experience of the writer of these remarks, and the supposed consequences have not taken place. They were the following.

A farmer, in returning from market, was deeply affected by a most extraordinarily brilliant light, which he thought he saw upon the road, and by an appearance in that light, which he conceived to be our Saviour. He was greatly alarmed, and, spurring his horse, galloped home; remained agitated during the evening; was seized with typhus fever, then prevailing in the neighbourhood; and died in about ten days. Be it observed, that on the morning of the day of the supposed vision, he had complained, before he left home, of head-ache, languor, and general weariness. In fact, this is only to be accounted for, rationally, by supposing the existence of the nervous impression preceding the open attack of severe disease. It would be well if we would sometimes borrow caution from a heathen; "Nec Deus intersit, nisi dignus vindice nodus inciderit." An analogous case has been related to me, in which there was an appearance of the evil one, and which was followed by severe illness and death; but as this has not happened within the sphere of my own investigation, it is merely mentioned as shewing the frequency of such impressions.

Another instance, but which was followed by a fatal result, occurred in the case of C. D., who has several times witnessed a luminous ap pearance, only without a visible representation of any particular form. This has happened almost immediately after going to bed; and although the individual may be said to be free from superstitious fears, and religion cannot bear the unjust blame of inducing them, for

he is sceptical on the subject of many of the grand truths of Christianity; yet it has been difficult, nay, impossible, to convince him that the light was not real; and that the apparent vividness with which he saw every surrounding object, although he was really in the dark, was the actual result of recollected impressions previously made upon the sensorium, and now associated with the ocular spectrum produced by a peculiar state of the optic nerve; that condition being the result of disordered health, since upon all these occasions the general health has been manifestly deranged.

Again: E. F. is a young gentleman, who had for years been subject to paroxysms of epilepsy, and, I apprehend too, of maniacal hallucination. His history, so far as it fell under my own observation, is shortly this. He came into my neighbourhood for change of air. He had been one day to visit a friend of his, residing in a village a few miles distant, and had left that house about eleven o'clock at night. He did not return to his lodgings until five the next morning, and then in a state of great exhaustion, with his clothes in so wet, and dirty, and disordered a condition, as indicated that he must have spent a considerable portion of the night upon the wild commons, with which this locality is surrounded. Be it observed, that, on account of his head, he had taken only one glass of wine; so that the excitement of intoxication is entirely out of the question. His account of himself was: that he had been met by a light of the most extraordinary brilliance, in the centre of which was a female form of exceeding beauty; and that he had followed this light, until, when it finally disappeared, he found himself completely bewildered, and knew not where he was. He then wandered about, until at length he came to a cottage, and there remained till, with the assistance of day-light, and

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